What is a "critique?"

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En provenance du cours de Michigan State University

Photography Capstone Project

164 notes

Michigan State University

Photography Capstone Project

164 notes

Cours 5 sur 5 dans Specialization Photography Basics and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR

The Capstone Project is your opportunity to take advantage of the knowledge you have gained through our journey in learning about photography, to develop a meaningful project of 10 well formed photographs based in your passion for artistic expression, or a subject for documentary exploration, insightful portraiture, imaging for work-related subjects, or some other aspect of photography. We are confident that it will be a project that you will be excited to share with fellow Learners, and with Professors Peter Glendinning and Mark Sullivan too! A unique feature of this Course is the individual review and responsive input you will receive directly from Peter or Mark, who will be viewing your pictures and making evaluations of all projects at the end of the Capstone. You should plan on spending more time on this Course per week than any other in this Specialization, and much of it will be in making photographs. During the entire period of development, you and your fellow learners will be supporting each other as you work independently, by sharing your work-in-progress from the initial Project Plan to the final Portfolio. At each stage, all Learners will share comments and suggestions with each other, helping each other to gauge progress and to learn about different approaches to photography and content. By expressing your own ideas and expectations about quality in response to the work of others, you will be forming your own criteria of excellence as well. Along the way there will be multiple opportunities for sharing pictures and ideas through carefully designed Peer Review. This sharing of photographs and comments with peers, and reflecting on their comments about your photos, will be an exciting learning experience that will help you grow in understanding your own photography and that of others. Your contribution of comments to fellow Learners will not only help them understand their photographs better, but it will give you an opportunity to use the vocabulary of terms that are related to techniques, design principles, and content approaches that you have learned through your success in each of the previous Modules. A unique aspect of this Specialization is that everyone who completes the requirements will receive, in addition to their Certificate of Specialization from Michigan State University, access to substantial discounts on equipment, accessories, and membership benefits through Industry Partners from among the premier manufacturers of photography equipment and related items: Fracture, Gary Fong, Gyst, Lensbaby, LensPen, Lume Cube Lighting, Photo District News, PhotoVideoEdu, Think Tank Cases/Bags. In addition, The 'top-10' peer-reviewed Capstone projects each year will be awarded the opportunity for individual reviews, with personal responses, by world renowned photographers who have been honored with the title of Canson-Infinity® Paper Ambassadors.

À partir de la leçon

Learning more about critically analyzing

Peter and Mark will review two more MSU student projects to help you understand what they see as markers of success in a body of related photographs. Once again, the students' Photographer's Statements are presented as examples of the diversity with which such things may be written. Peter will also discuss the purposes of "critique," also known as constructive criticism, and strategies for analyzing the works of others. Our Lesson Review in this Module is again from Course Three, entitled "Composition is a "Map," Balance is Bike Riding." Finally, you will practice your "critique skills" in a Peer Review exercise. Of course, during this week you will keep photographing to develop your project further.

What is a "critique?"9:42

Analyzing the MSU Student Project by Dennis Kennedy8:11

Analyzing the MSU Student Project by Lauren Nalepa8:34

Lesson Review: "Composition is a 'Map,' Balance is bike riding," from Course 38:16

Rencontrer les enseignants

Peter Glendinning
Professor
Art, Art History, & Design
Mark Valentine Sullivan
Associate Professor
Music / Innovation Hub

[MUSIC]

Well now we're going to get into something exciting, and

we're going to talk about this word critiques so let's go.

In some situations, the word critique has negative connotations.

When most people hear anything that sounds like the word, criticism.

They naturally get a bit edgy.

And view that as something to be avoided whenever possible.

In the context of the education of photographers here at

Michigan State University,

however, that word is related to a very positive experience in the classroom.

One of a vibrant exchange of ideas, and evaluations by peers, related to one or

more photographs put forward by the student whose work is being reviewed,

or being critiqued.

Peer review is the boiler plate terminology here in the world of Coursera.

For occasions of exchange of ideas between learners

about their individual assignments.

While Mark and I have had to accept that structure for

that format in this online learning environment,

we know that it has been a struggle for some of you, as it has been at times for

us, in terms of sharing and gaining very useful feedback.

The struggles have come, we believe, primarily from two things.

First is the difficulty of engaging in a conversation of any real

meaning and length.

Within the structure of written assignments in an online course enrolling

large numbers of learners, especially when grading has to be factored in.

Second is the attitude on the part of some learners

that the peer reviews were a bit of a chore.

Rather than an exciting opportunity to grow in knowledge as a photographer,

resulting in some learners not having enough assessments made of their works and

some of those assessments have frankly been, well, let's just say underwhelming.

An let's admit it, not really relevant and yes sometimes they've even been mean.

We are confident that the peer review, also know

as the critique experience of this course, is going to be quite different.

First, you're learners of a higher order than most.

And there are fewer of you.

You're a community with community values of support.

Individually you've recognized that the commitment you're making to this course

is really a long term one compared to other courses.

And you've made an even longer term commitment to yourself.

You're here to establish an important marker

in your development as a photographer.

To create a set of photographs that may be completed at the end of the course,

but could well be the first set of photographs

in a project that continues long into the future.

In short, we fully expect that you will all participate in truly meaningful

ways when you put your works forward and when you respond

to those of your fellow photographers in the peer review assignments.

Second, peer reviews have been designed differently than in previous courses.

They're designed in a manner to encourage completely open and

completely frank sharing.

Both by the photographer posting their words and images, and

their peers who respond to them.

As truly dedicated learners, you know that you learn as much by the creative and

intellectual activity of responding to photographs

as you do by the activities related to making photographs.

The structure for peer reviews is designed to give you the opportunity

to see the contributions of every other participant if you like.

And we hope you'll take full advantage of learning

from as many of their photographs and statements as possible.

This is the time of intensive activity, and there's no hiding that fact.

It's better to embrace it.

Let's consider the reasons that we engage in meaningful critiques here at MSU and

also here in the Coursera capstone.

What do we learn from this exercise?

Well, in important ways, we look in the mirror first and

engage in the act of critique for ourselves.

Before we upload our photographs for others to review.

In assessing our own photographs before deciding which to share for

review, we have to make important judgements.

We must first decide for ourselves, what makes a picture successful?

We test our impressions of quality against our own set of standards.

We compare our photographs to one another and determine which ones a vote

the greatest, creative, intellectual or emotional responses.

Those are all things we will do when we evaluate the work of others also.

A critique also includes putting ourselves in shoes of the photographer so to speak.

What did the photographer decide was the subject?

And what do we think the subject is?

Sometimes those are very different things.

What photographic techniques did the photographer use to achieve their goals?

I used a flashlight with about a 15 second exposure and a handheld camera.

For these photographs from my Paris series.

I used, Impossible brand, Polaroid SX70 film.

Could you have figured that out on your own?

When we assess another photographer's pictures,

we may ask ourselves whether we can identify the techniques.

Whether we know how to use them and what those techniques are and

could we duplicate them?

If we can't determine that techniques exactly, then

what does that tell us about the picture and about the photographer's purpose?

What did the photographer decide were the important visual elements?

Did they choose to emphasize shape over form?

As in this picture.

Or texture more than tonal value, or did line and pattern play important roles?

In analyzing a photograph, we pick these pictures apart.

As if it were a machine we were disassembling

to understand how it's parts fit together to make it move.

How are those visual elements organized?

Was it symmetry as in this picture, or asymmetry?

Or did perspective,

or perhaps the golden mean play the stronger role in composition?

Finally, in describing our responses to these various elements

we will want to use the vocabulary of professional photographers or

terms of art that are recognized as being appropriate to a conversation between

photographers who've gone beyond their rank armature level as usually have.

I've used a number of those trends already.

From shape to asymmetry and everything in between that's specific to

the vocabulary of serious people creating photographs that are purposeful.

What terms of art would you use to describe the essential elements of

this photograph of my finger puppet at the gate of Buckingham Palace.

Well the reading that I've placed in this lesson for

you gives a detailed set of parameters of steps for engaging in a critique.

And I want you to use that as a guide in the opportunities you'll have,

to fill in those ungraded text boxes that are part of our peer review.

I hope that it will help you in responding in meaningful ways

to your fellow photographers' pictures and

also as you evaluate and critique your own photographs.

I'm ending with this photograph of my favorite finger puppet, who's joined in

a fun conversation by a little stick-puppet of William Henry Fox Talbot,

who invented the positive-negative process in photography.

I made the picture at Fox Talbot's home Laycock Abbey in England.

It's a national trust property which I hope you'll be able to

visit someday yourself.

The picture is here, because I think it is both successfully exposed,

composed, and has the element of fun as its content.

Because I want to end this somewhat serious topic of critique with

the admonishment that whatever you do in critiquing your own photographs and

those of your peers, make it a fun and exciting experience for everyone.

[MUSIC]

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